McGrathNicol could go after Dick Smith auditor Deloitte for potential breach of accounting standards after it was appointed as the liquidator of the collapsed electronic retailer, the Financial Review reported. UTS accounting professor Peter Wells said on Monday a close reading of page 48 of the creditors' report suggests some of the rebates were classified as marketing rebates when they should have been classified as inventory rebates to inflate profit for the 2015 financial year.

Singapore’s regulator has vowed more “intrusive” inspections of banks over money-laundering after admitting that the scandal surrounding Malaysia’s state investment fund has been a blow to the city-state’s reputation as a financial centre, the Financial Times reported. Banks in Singapore were used to channel money diverted from 1MDB, according to US prosecutors, who allege that more than $3.5bn was siphoned off from the Malaysian state investment fund.

The head of a credit fund controlled by Indian billionaire Uday Kotak said the government’s push to rid banks of bad loans will outlast the departure of a central bank governor who battled the problem, Bloomberg News reported today. Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan, who set a deadline for Indian lenders to clean up their soured debt by March 2017, leaves office in early September. The banking industry’s gross bad-loan ratio jumped to a 13-year high of 7.6 percent at the end of March, underscoring a key challenge for the next central bank head.

Turkey’s failed coup is dealing yet another blow to the nation’s banks, which are already under pressure from rising bad debts and a slump in tourism, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Istanbul-based lenders Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi AS and Sekerbank TAS canceled about $800 million of debt sales this week after the attempt to unseat President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the ensuing political unrest spooked investors. Neither bank forecast when it may return to the credit markets, with Sekerbank saying it would contact fixed-income investors in due course.

Asset manager Brookfield has put $1 billion into a joint venture with India’s biggest bank to recapitalise and provide financial support to distressed corporate clients, the Financial Times reported today. The State Bank of India (SBI) announced that Brookfield, which specializes in infrastructure and private equity, had not only committed 70 billion Rupees ($1 billion) to a fund that will invest in stressed assets but also plans to help manage the recapitalized businesses. The SBI announcement represents a new tack from a state-owned banking sector hamstrung by mounting bad debts.

A very local problem in China is being exported at an alarming rate, according to a Bloomberg commentary yesterday. Debt from special-purpose vehicles linked to municipal and provincial governments -- leverage that central authorities are trying to extinguish -- is becoming more common in overseas markets. What's worse, lately it's been the weakest cities and provinces panhandling to international investors, according to the commentary.

Singapore is seeking to enhance its position as a center for debt restructuring by giving its insolvency law some of the powers of the U.S. bankruptcy code’s chapter 11, just as companies worldwide default on bonds at the fastest pace since the global financial crisis, Bloomberg News reported today. The government has “broadly accepted” 17 recommendations submitted by a committee after a yearlong review, the Ministry of Law said in a statement.

From deodorant makers to steel mills, Indian banks are getting stuck owning assets they are finding hard to sell under a plan where they exchange soured loans for equity, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. India’s banks have converted or are seeking to convert loans to at least 22 companies, amounting to more than 1 trillion rupees ($14.9 billion), into majority stakes since June 2015, data compiled from exchange filings shows.

Turkey’s central bank today cut one of its key rates for the fifth consecutive month after an attempted coup triggered fears about repercussions for the country’s economy, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Monetary Policy Committee in Ankara said it cut the overnight lending rate to 8.75 percent from 9 percent. It kept its benchmark one-week repo rate steady at 7.5 percent and its overnight borrowing rate at 7.25 percent. After the decision, Turkey’s lira extended its losses, trading 0.1 percent lower at 2.9847 per dollar, compared with 2.9713 before the announcement.

India begins its four-week monsoon session of parliament today, with prime minister Narendra Modi’s government hoping to move ahead with long-awaited tax reforms to turn the country into a genuine single market, the Financial Times reported today. The adoption of a goods and services tax, or GST — to replace a raft of different state and local taxes with a single unified value added tax system — is seen as potentially transformative for India’s economy.